This is the most recent game that I have been to and concludes this series of posts highlighting the baseball games that I have attended. I have offered up 18 games, but in reality have probably been to 30 or so. Careless moments and ticket stubs in the washing machine don’t mix when you are trying to relive past events. I hope that you have enjoyed this series and I will certainly present to you any games I attend in the future.

On to game #18…

I scored these tickets using a 2-for-1 coupon. I was able to get seats right alongside the Marlins bullpen so I made sure I arrived extra early to grab some up-close pictures. When we arrived, Scott Olsen was was firing away in the pen and was quickly joined by most of the Marlin’s starters and several of the bullpen players. It was nice to be there so early with little noise. I clearly remember being able to hear the ‘zip’ of the ball as it raced 60 feet from Olsen to the bullpen catcher.

The game was great, if you were cheering for the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays’ bats were hot and were led by Evan Longoria’s 3 for 5 performance which was capped off by a home run. I have to say that it is kind of cool to say that I saw the American League Champions play. The Marlins were terrible, both on offense as well as pitching. The bats were cold, cold, cold…

Now onto the big story of the game – Matt Garza!!! This kid was awesome. He was getting batters out at will and racked up hitless inning after hitless inning. As the game went on, and the hits were not coming and I started to get flashbacks of the Al Leiter no-hitter I witnessed several years prior. 4th inning – no hits. 5th inning – no hits. Do I tell my buddy that I have seen a no-hitter before? Do I mention thosewords? How many people have been to 2 no-hitter in their lives?? WoW!!! 6th inning – no hits. Oh my, it’s going to happen again; too bad there is noone at the park to enjoy this… 7th inning – CRACK!!! Hanley Ramirez launches a deep home run to left field. Gone is the no-hitter. Gone is the shutout. Gone is history. This Marlins only accounted for 1 hit in this game. 1 pitch is what separated my second no-hitter in person from my 1 no-hitter and 1 1-hitter. One hell of an effort by Matt Garza though…

We got another set of 4 free tickets to the Coors suite for this game. It was an awesome night with perfect weather. This was my first opportunity to see 2 of the Marlin’s talented young players – Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla and they did not disappoint!!

Washington Nationals

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

NOTES

Lopez

5

1

2

0

0

1

0.308

Belliard

4

0

0

0

0

0

0.284

Zimmerman

4

1

2

1

1

0

0.231

Young

3

1

1

0

1

1

0.290

Kearns

2

0

0

1

1

0.261

Church

4

0

2

1

0

1

0.299

Rivera

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Schneider

4

0

0

1

0

0

0.169

Flores

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Snelling

3

0

0

0

1

1

0.231

Chico

2

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Speigner

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Jimenez

1

0

0

0

0

1

0.083

Wagner

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Restovich

1

0

0

0

0

0

0.400

33

3

7

3

4

6

Florida Marlins

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

NOTES

Ramirez

4

2

1

2

1

1

0.364

HR

Uggla

3

3

2

0

2

0

0.235

Boone

4

1

1

1

0

2

0.308

Willingham

5

0

3

1

0

1

0.270

Borchard

4

0

0

0

1

1

0.224

Ross

5

1

2

2

0

1

0.314

Olivo

4

0

1

0

1

1

0.224

Wood

3

1

1

1

2

0

0.214

HR

Sanchez

1

1

0

0

2

1

0.000

Lindstrom

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Reed

1

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Messenger

1

0

0

0

0

1

0.000

35

9

11

7

9

9

To increase attendance, the Florida Marlins introduced ‘Super Saturdays’ during the 2007 season. After the game, fans would be treated to fireworks and a concert. The band that performed on our night was Cheap Trick. Although I am not a big fan of theirs, I knew enough of the songs that they played to really enjoy the show… and watching from the suite was an added bonus!!

For those of you not familiar with their work, here is a video to enjoy. For me, this band falls into the category of ‘I didn’t know it was them that sang that…’. If you listen to their Greatest Hits CD you would probably react similarly…

I don’t really care for the Pirates, and truth be told I was unable to name many of their players before or during the game. Jason Bay and Freddie Sanchez were the only 2 names that the more-than-casual baseball fan would probably recognize and I was in that boat as well. However, I left the game with a new player to keep an eye on – Chris Duffy. This kid hit a shot to the outfield and took off on the base paths, landing safely at 3rd base with a stand-up triple. While at-bat I wasn’t too focused on him until I heard that lovely crack of the ball meeting the bat. My first reaction was “WHOA” followed by a “Who hit that???” Well, it was Chris Duffy and he was on his way to a 3-hit night.

The Marlins line-up was stocked with some nice talent. Mike Lowell was one of my favorites, and players like Juan Pierre, Carlos Delgado, and Miguel Cabrera make for a pretty well-rounded line up. On this night, it was Juan Encarnacion and Damian Easley that provided all of the fireworks that the Marlins would need to secure the win.

What can I say? I have been to some spectacular sporting events in my lifetime. Of all of the games I have attended, none had more pre-game excitement and anxiousness surrounding it than this one. The Marlins literally came out of nowhere and were now competing for a World Series championship. Although this was just game #1 of a possible 7-game series, the energy and enthusiasm that surrounded this game was immense!!!

This game featured some amazingly talented players. Among them for the Indians were Orel Hershiser(a World Series hero), Manny Ramirez, Dave Justice, Matt Williams, Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar Jr., and Omar Vizquel. Man, what an awesome line-up… there are some major stars on that roster!!!

The Marlins featured a line-up packed with overachievers while being anchored by a few veterans. Led by players like Devon White, Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, and Darren Daulton, it was the ‘little guy’ that was becoming the star of the team. Players like Livan Hernandez, Edgar Renteria(one of my favorites), Craig Counsell, and Charles Johnson all elevated their play and helped the Marlins make it to the fall classic.

Cleveland Indians

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

NOTES

Roberts

4

1

2

0

1

0

(2)2B

Vizquel

4

0

0

0

0

2

Ramirez

3

1

1

1

2

0

HR

Justice

4

0

2

1

1

0

Williams

5

0

1

0

0

1

Thome

5

1

1

1

0

2

HR

Alomar

5

0

1

0

0

2

Grissom

3

1

2

0

1

1

Hershiser

2

0

0

0

0

1

Juden

0

0

0

0

0

0

Branson

1

0

0

0

0

1

Plunk

0

0

0

0

0

0

Giles

1

0

1

1

0

0

2B

Assenmacher

0

0

0

0

0

0

Florida Marlins

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

NOTES

White

4

0

0

0

1

1

Renteria

4

0

0

1

0

0

Sheffield

2

1

0

0

2

1

Bonilla

3

2

2

0

1

1

Daulton

2

1

1

0

0

0

Conine

1

0

1

1

0

0

Alou

3

1

1

3

1

1

HR

Johnson

3

1

1

1

1

0

HR

Counsell

3

1

1

0

1

0

2B

Hernandez

2

0

0

0

0

0

Cook

0

0

0

0

0

0

Powell

0

0

0

0

0

0

Cangelosi

1

0

0

0

0

1

Nen

0

0

0

0

0

0

There were some incredible home runs hit in this game. To say that I have been to a game in which 2 members(Thome, Manny) of the 500 HR Club have hit home runs is pretty cool. The fact that it was a World Series game is even cooler. The fact that both of these guys(Thome and Manny) could end up in the 600 HR Club may be the coolest!!!!

Hall of Famers in this game – Jim Thome(???), Manny Ramirez(???), and Gary Sheffield(???)

This was game 4 for the Marlins’ 1997 season, and is the closest I have ever gotten to see a game on Opening Day. Who would have thought that just a few months later the Marlins would be celebrating a World Series championship???

What stood out most in this game was the amazingly talented offensive line-ups each of these teams had. The Reds were stacked with players like Deion Sanders, Ruben Sierra, Reggie Sanders, Barry Larkin, and Hal Morris. The Marlins didn’t have a soft line-up either. The roster contained Gary Sheffield, Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla, Devon White, and Jeff Conine. This was also the first game I ever saw Edgar Renteria play in live and he quickly became and still is one of my favorite Florida Marlins of all-time.

The biggest impression left on me after seeing this game was the obviuos talent of Reggie Sanders. Sanders had a hell of a night going 3-for-4 with 1 home run and 6 RBI. This is easily one of the best offensive performances I have witnessed during a live baseball game.

A little background on how I got tickets for this game: I was working at a local sporting goods store and Nike presented our store with 15 tickets in the ‘picnic’ section of the bleachers for winning a sales contest in our district. The 15 tickets went quickly, and we all were able to enjoy the comfortable seating in the picnic area as well as free food and drinks for the duration of the game. So not only did we got to enjoy a night out at the ballpark, but the free food and drinks were a nice added bonus!!

Colorado Rockies

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

BA

NOTES

Young

4

0

0

0

0

2

0.319

Weiss

3

0

0

0

0

0

0.308

Bichette

3

0

0

0

0

1

0.310

Galaraga

2

0

0

1

1

0.260

Burks

2

0

0

0

0

0

0.308

Castilla

3

0

0

0

0

1

0.299

Hubbard

2

0

0

0

0

0

0.192

Munoz

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Bates

1

0

0

0

0

0

0.250

Painter

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.167

Owens

2

0

0

0

1

1

0.222

Thompson

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Hayban

1

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

McCracken

2

0

0

0

0

0

0.182

Florida Marlins

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

BA

NOTES

White

5

0

0

0

0

0

0.248

Arias

5

1

1

0

0

2

0.333

Colbrunn

5

3

3

0

0

1

0.289

Sheffield

1

3

0

0

3

0

0.290

Conine

2

1

1

3

2

0

0.273

Pendleton

4

2

3

5

0

1

0.227

HR

Johnson

4

1

1

3

0

1

0.240

HR

Grebeck

4

0

2

0

0

0

0.143

Leiter

3

0

0

0

0

2

0.059

That’s right baby!!!! I was at Al Leiter’s no-hitter and I loved every minute of it!!!!

This is the kind of game you read about. This is the kind of game you hear stories about. This is the kind of game you are envious about when someone tells you that they have seen a ‘no-hitter’ live in person. The energy and sheer excitement was effecting everyone in the ballpark. Just like players and coaches that have superstitious traditions when it comes to not effecting the pitcher’s focus during a game like this, we as fans follow suit. We all stayed in the same seats. None of us drank or ate anything differently. None of us took bathroom breaks.

Look, I have been to some pretty awesome sporting events in my life. College football homecoming games, NBA playoffs, Tennis chamopinships, and even the World Series. When I tell you that nothing has ever come close to the excitement and enthusiasm that I felt during this game I am not exaggerating!!!

This game was thrilling from start to finish and is ‘The Game’ that I will remember seeing live for the rest of my life!!!!

I got the opportunity to see Rickey Henderson live and I jumped at it!!! I had seen him play in several Spring Training games, but to watch him play in a regular season game was great. His approach at the plate and desire to beat the competition was one of my favorite attributes of Rickey’s play. Too bad, he went 0-for-4….

I also got to see Gary Sheffield hit a home run which was pretty impressive. I’ve always been in awe of Sheffield at the plate, and I can honestly say that over the course of his career if I caught a game on TV in which he was at bat I stopped to watch EVERY time. He is immensely talented, and his bat speed is out of this world.

San Diego Padres

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

BA

Notes

Henderson

4

0

0

0

1

0

0.159

Finley

4

0

0

0

0

2

0.217

Newfield

4

1

1

0

0

0

0.395

Caminiti

4

1

2

0

0

0

0.325

Livingstone

4

1

2

2

0

0

0.235

HR

Reed

4

0

1

1

0

0

0.295

SB

Ausmus

4

1

1

0

0

0

0.215

Cedeno

4

1

3

1

0

0

0.246

Ashby

2

0

0

1

0

2

0.364

Florida Marlins

AB

R

H

RBI

BB

SO

BA

Notes

Veras

3

0

1

0

1

1

0.254

SB

Orsulak

4

1

0

0

0

0

0.111

Sheffield

4

1

2

1

0

0

0.288

HR

Conine

4

0

2

1

0

0

0.260

Pendleton

4

0

1

0

0

0

0.211

Colbrunn

4

0

0

0

0

1

0.230

Johnson

4

0

0

0

0

1

0.214

Abbott

3

1

1

1

0

0

0.304

HR

Burkett

2

0

0

0

0

0

0.154

White

1

0

0

0

0

0

0.205

Weathers

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

Hall of famers in this game – Rickey Henderson(???) & Gary Sheffield(???)